NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Sunday, November 17 (game #525)

Nice console games November 17, 2024 Gaming

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Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Connections expert

Marc McLaren

NYT Connections today (game #525) – today’s words

NYT Connections hints for game 525 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

Today’s NYT Connections words are…

APOLOGY
QUOTATION
ASSOCIATION
CONTRACTION
CLINGY
UNION
POSSESSIVE
SLINKY
PROPOSAL
SNUG
PRAYER
LEAGUE
GUILD
DUBBING
FOOT
SLEEK

NYT Connections today (game #525) – hint #1 – group hints

What are some clues for today’s NYT Connections groups?

Yellow: Grouping
Green: Tight, as clothing
Blue: Reasons to get down low
Purple: Meanings behind a grammatical mark

Need more clues?

We’re firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today’s NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #525) – hint #2 – group answers

What are the answers for today’s NYT Connections groups?

YELLOW: ALLIANCE
GREEN: CLOSE-FITTING
BLUE: OCCASIONS WHEN ONE MIGHT KNEEL
PURPLE: WHAT AN APOSTROPHE MIGHT INDICATE

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #525) – the answers

NYT Connections answers for game 525 on a purple background — (Image credit: New York Times)

The answers to today’s Connections, game #525, are…

YELLOW: ALLIANCE ASSOCIATION, GUILD, LEAGUE, UNION
GREEN: CLOSE-FITTING CLINGY, SLEEK, SLINKY, SNUG
BLUE: OCCASIONS WHEN ONE MIGHT KNEEL APOLOGY, DUBBING, PRAYER, PROPOSAL
PURPLE: WHAT AN APOSTROPHE MIGHT INDICATE CONTRACTION, FOOT, POSSESSIVE, QUOTATION

My rating: Hard
My score: 2 mistakes

This was a tough one. I started off well enough, with yellow (ALLIANCE) not causing me any problems. But after that I got stuck.

I could see several possible directions – for instance SLEEK and SLINKY, or CLINGY and POSSESSIVE, or indeed POSSESSIVE and CONTRACTION and QUOTATION – but no complete group. I tried a couple of wild guesses and got them wrong both times, then returned to the last of those possibles; POSSESSIVE, CONTRACTION and QUOTATION are all grammar terms, so what could the third be? And then it dawned on me – they weren’t terms as such, they were all examples of WHAT AN APOSTROPHE MIGHT INDICATE, with FOOT the fourth.

That gave me purple, with two guesses remaining. My best lead was on PROPOSAL, PRAYER and APOLOGY, which I figured were all examples of something you might offer up – but I didn’t know what the fourth was. So I looked at the other words and realized that CLINGY, SLEEK, SLINKY and SNUG were all examples of things that were CLOSE-FITTING; I really should have got that sooner.

That left blue by default, where the answer was apparently OCCASIONS WHEN ONE MIGHT KNEEL, with DUBBING being the fourth. And I have no idea whatsoever about why, because I don’t know of any context that fits. If you can enlighten me, please do!

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Yesterday’s NYT Connections answers (Saturday, 16 November, game #524)

YELLOW: THINGS THAT PREVENT LEAKS CAP, COVER, PLUG, SEAL
GREEN: KINDS OF HATS BERET, DERBY, PILLBOX, SNAPBACK
BLUE: COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM MEMBERS GATOR, SOONER, VOLUNTEER, WOLVERINE
PURPLE: GO ___ BANANAS, COMMANDO, FIGURE, ROGUE

What is NYT Connections?

NYT Connections is one of several increasingly popular word games made by the New York Times. It challenges you to find groups of four items that share something in common, and each group has a different difficulty level: green is easy, yellow a little harder, blue often quite tough and purple usually very difficult.

On the plus side, you don’t technically need to solve the final one, as you’ll be able to answer that one by a process of elimination. What’s more, you can make up to four mistakes, which gives you a little bit of breathing room.

It’s a little more involved than something like Wordle, however, and there are plenty of opportunities for the game to trip you up with tricks. For instance, watch out for homophones and other word games that could disguise the answers.

It’s playable for free via the NYT Games site on desktop or mobile.